2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Tuning - Fresh Meat

If You Have A '10 Camaro Then These Simple Mods Can Help Its Performance.

•Ahh, that new car smell. It's aromatherapy for those of us hopelessly addicted to the automotive arts. And when that new ride is something as sweet as an SS Camaro, that smell seems to be just a bit more intoxicating. In fact, we would have to say the experience is only rivaled by the act of bolting on the car's first performance widgets. This fact is being discovered by a slew of new gearheads buying Chevy's 2010 Camaro SS. And given that they just dropped a big wad of cash on the car, they often want to ease into the modifications.

2/18

Two of the most popular first mods for new Camaros are air intakes and handheld programmers. The intakes help more air flow into the engine, which equates to more power, while the programmer performs a plethora of tasks, from tuning to adjusting for tire sizes. In the grand scheme of things, they both fall into the "affordable and easy-to-do" category, which is never a bad place to start.

Performance in the Palm of Your Hand
•In the old days, tuning your car involved twisting distributors and screwing in and out various jets. Today, it's a whole different ball game. Laptops have replaced hand tools, and timing lights have yielded to lines of computer code. But the goals are still the same: Squeeze out every bit of possible performance by massaging the engine's tune. Unfortunately, it's far easier to get it wrong than it is to get it right. For those of us without the mad skills needed to make sense of raw programming code, there's a solution: the handheld programmer. You can't get as deep into messing with your ride's computer as you can with a PC-based programmer, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is because it's unlikely you'll end up turning your engine to scrap metal since the handhelds come pre-loaded with tunes that have been dyno tested.

3/18

But there's more to them than just the tuning tweaks they provide. They can also remove top-speed limiters, adjust for aftermarket tire sizes, change gear ratios, and disable displacement-on-demand features. If you have an automatic, there are more benefits to be had in being able to adjust your transmission's shift points. All of this in an easy-to-use, menu-driven format. What's not to love?

MORE PHOTOS

VIEW FULL GALLERY

xclose

2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS Tuning - Fresh Meat

Our volunteer for this test was a '10 SS Camaro with the 400hp L99 V-8. After a couple of warm up pulls we ended up with a good baseline number to work off of. K&N focuses more on overall gains rather than peek numbers. This also corrects to the more stingy SAE standard.

If you're dealing with a new SS Camaro, you will have one of two engines based on the transmission sitting behind it. Those that opted for the six-speed automatic will have the L99 V-8. TR-6060 manual owners will be working with the slightly more powerful 426hp LS3. The nice part is that externally both engines are almost identical.

The stock system is actually pretty decent, but GM's design is more focused on quieting noise than performance. The new K&N kit ditches the silencers and baffles providing the air a nice, smooth path to the intake.

The first step was to remove the stock stuff. None of it was rocket science; we just started unplugging sensors and removing fasteners.

Ten minutes later we had the last of the OEM air intake system out of the Camaro. Since we live in California, we'll keep this safely stored away for future smog inspections.

With the old stuff out, it was time to assemble the air filter box per K&N's instructions. The rubber seal will help keep hot engine air out of the filter area when the hood is closed.

We then bolted the air box assembly into the Camaro's engine bay.

Next, we transferred the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor from the OEM intake to the new shiny K&N tube.

All that was left to do was install the large conical filter, put the air tube in place, plug in the MAF, and make sure everything was tight. The whole install took a whopping 35 minutes.

The SCT handheld (PN 3400) is completely menu-driven. It comes with pre-programmed tunes, but also has the capability to store up to three custom tunes that can be loaded by any of SCT's custom tuning dealers. It's also nice that the same programmer does both automatic and manual transmission-equipped cars.

To us, the other aspects of the handheld are even more important than the programming. With this unit we're able to record our Camaro's PCM data and review it on either the SCT's screen or on a laptop. In addition, if we ever had a check engine light come on, we would be able to diagnose the problem without heading to a dealership.

To keep things simple, we chose the standard tune. The stock tune was then downloaded into the SCT for safekeeping before the new tune was uploaded. This way it's easy to go back to stock whenever we want. Like the sign says, it's critical that the unit isn't unplugged or power cut during the programming process.

On our L99 we could disable the displacement-on-demand cylinder deactivation feature. In the end we got rid of the top speed limiter and firmed-up our shift points. In the future we will be able to adjust for new 18-inch rollers and increase our rev limiter when we bump up the camshaft a bit. Pretty cool, and it's small enough to fit in the glovebox.

With only six buttons to figure out, programming doesn't get any simpler than this. We plugged it into the '10's OBD-II port, flipped on the key, and started following the menu prompts.

Our L99-powered '10 had already thrown down some pretty healthy power numbers, so we were curious what gain we would see from our 30-minute air intake install. After a few warm up pulls we found a significant gain, especially in the upper rpm range.

This is the part where we need to say, "Your results may vary." Depending on the car and its current state of tune, you may get a large gain or a small one. We picked up a good gain in power, but you may end up getting a bit more or a bit less. In addition, since the programmer was stacked on top of the K&N filter install, the law of diminishing returns came into effect. Still, at 3,600 rpm we picked up 13.58 horsepower and over 20 lb-ft of torque. That's a pretty healthy gain for just pushing a few buttons!

COMMENTS

related articles

Don Gonzales didn't feel the urge to go racing until the fifth-gen Camaro came along. Now he is making up for lost time in his corner-ripping 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS, one smoking lap at a time. » Read More